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Compared with the other major European powers of the 19^th and 20^th century, France's industrialization was comparatively slow. In global history, the period between 1815 and 1914 is often referred to as the Pax Britannica; a time where Britain emerged as the leading superpower and relations between the Great Powers was very peaceful, allowing many Western European countries to undergo industrial revolutions. In France, however, the term "industrial revolution" was less applicable, as it remained a fairly agricultural society; transportation infrastructure was poor, and large urban centers made their money through banking, shipping, and artisanal production. It was only during the 1840s, where France's railway network developed, that urbanization and industrialization began to take off, but it still lagged behind Britain, Germany, and Belgium for the remainder of the century. The loss of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany in 1871 significantly hindered France's industrialization, as it was one of the country's richest mining regions.

Interwar period

France then reclaimed Alsace-Lorraine after the First World War, and occupied two of Germany's most industrious areas during the 1920s; the Rhineland was occupied through the Treaty of Versailles until 1930, and the Ruhr region from 1923 to 1925, when Germany defaulted on its reparation payments. Because of this, industrial output was higher in the 1920s than in the 1930s, where it declined due to the Great Depression, withdrawal from Germany, and then the Second World War. Figures are missing from some years due to German occupation, but in 1944, the year of France's liberation, output was almost a third of its pre-war level.

Post-war recovery

Within three to four years, French industrial output had returned to a similar level as the 1930s, and this marked the beginning of Les Trente Glorieuses (the glorious thirty). These three decades saw uninterrupted economic growth, and industrial output soared. Using 1963 as a benchmark, industrial output doubled from 1951 to 1963, and tripled from 1951 to 1971. France, along with West Germany, played a key role in European integration in this period, which laid the groundwork for the European Union's formation. Industrial growth then came to a halt in the mid-1970s, due to the 1973-75 Recession, at which point the government put safeguards in place to prevent uncontrolled growth in the future.